Page 94 of Heat Clinic

I press my nose to Tom’s throat and inhale deeply. “I couldn’t stand the thought of spending another night out of my nest.”

“How do you like that, darling? We rank second below her nest.” Tom clicks his tongue. “I think our omega has gotten spoiled. Perhaps a spanking is in order?

Sliding a hand under his jacket, I grab a bit of skin through his shirt and pinch. “That’s not what I said!”

Tom pulls a hand away and brings it down sharply on my rear. “And she’s wearing panties. A clear rule violation.”

I dance away from him before he can spank me again because Tom doesn’t know when to stop unless you make him.

“It’s thirty degrees outside and we’re not at home. I’m allowed to wear panties!” I say the last bit louder than necessary, and a few bedraggled passengers walking by turn their heads and stare at us before continuing to their trains. My face heats, and he grins.

Marcus pulls me into his arms as if he’s shielding me from Tom’s incessant teasing. “Behave, or I’ll make you.”

Tom’s grin widens. “That’s not much incentive to stop, I’m afraid.”

“Save it for tomorrow. It’s late, and I have a meeting at eight.” There’s a note of finality in Marcus’s voice. A thread of alpha bark woven into the words that makes my knees weak and my panties damp.

“Yes, alpha,” we all say in unison.

Marcus takes my bag from my shoulder, and we head home where everything is right. It smells like all of us. My nest is heavenly. From inside it, all I see when I look out is a jungle of greenery as my new plants line the triple set of windows on the opposite side of the room. I can’t wait to add the rest of them to my rapidly growing collection. Tom rigged the sun lamps so they get enough light since it’s a west-facing window.

And that night we all sleep in it in a tangled pile of limbs, and in the morning Marcus presses a kiss to my temple before he climbs out to go to work. I roll over and cuddle into Sam.

Everything is perfect.

ChapterTwenty-Five

EMILY

Everything is all wrong.This can’t be happening.

Once again, my heat starts at the worst possible time, and it hits me with such sudden forcefulness that I end up doubled over and clutching my cramping belly as I breathe through the pain and grunt.

Sam is in the basement working on his bike, but there’s no cell service down there. Tom is across the city picking up our surprise bonding gift. Marcus is at work with an important client his firm is trying to land. There is a strange alpha in the apartment fixing the broken dishwasher, and I left my phone on the coffee table when I went to the bathroom. That’s when the cramps started.

I sink down to the floor and curl up in a ball on the cold tile, hugging my knees to my chest as I wait for the latest cramp to let me out of its grip. I’m two days early for once instead of late and it couldn’t be worse timing. The pain eases with a gush of slick that soaks through my underwear and leggings. I’m not even wearing slick panties because I’m never early. Never. I gulp in a shuddering breath and unclench my teeth.

Boots make loud steps as the repair guy leaves the kitchen. “Ma’am? I’m all finished. I just need you to sign the work order and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“I’m in the bathroom! Umm… Can you… can you slip it under the door?”

There’s a heavy silence and then the sound of him coming closer. “Slip it under the door? I can wait if you’ll only be a few minutes. I’ll go pack up my things.”

“No.” The last thing I need is the temptation of some random alpha when all my hindbrain wants is a knot. Any knot. “I’m going to be here a while. Slip it under the door, please.”

He huffs, and then a moment later he shoves a work order under the door.Fuck. A pen. Is there a pen in the bathroom?I don’t know why there would be, but boy, I hope there is.

I slap the paper onto the floor and rifle through the drawers I can reach, gritting my teeth and breathing through a cramp, and another rush of slick soaks into stretchy spandex. My fingers hit something in the back of a drawer that rolls, and I grab it. Eyeliner. It’ll work. I sign the paper and slide it back under the door. The alpha takes it, his boots creaking as he stands, and then I hear him sniff it.

Fuck.

“Are you okay, ma’am? Do you need me to help you call someone?”

The last thing I need is for him to know I’m stuck in here alone without my phone. Maybe he’s the nicest guy in the world and I’m judging him solely on his dynamic, but with enough time and exposure, my heat will trigger his rut and reduce us to little more than animals.

So I lie. “I already did, but thank you. You can show yourself out. My alpha will be home soon, and he won’t like it if you’re still here.”

I hear him shift on his feet, and I look at the door again to make sure the locked knob hasn’t somehow come unlocked. Not that something as flimsy as a door will stop a determined alpha in full rut.

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